In a wireless network, such as a LTE network or a WCDMA network, it is important to ensure good quality for the data traffic in the network. Quality can be verified and efficiently maintained by monitoring the functionalities of the wireless network with appropriate apparatus and procedures. The monitoring of the network reveals whether desired connection or services are available or whether a sufficient quality level for the connection is reached.
The performance of a service provided over a wireless link depends on numerous factors. Some of these can be determined via standardized radio link measurements. Others can be related to other known or discloseable factors. However, some factors are advantageously reported by the terminal application or related procedures in the terminal. Perceived service quality can be facilitated by service evaluations in the terminal that is fed back to the service provider. Another option is application layer terminal reporting, typically to the service provider. Such reporting is based on the information available to an application on a mobile terminal, and is conveyed to the service provider as part of the service session communication and signalling.
Performance reports directly from the terminal or user equipment (UE) provide valuable information about the performance for terminals and applications run on the terminals. A terminal report may be sent to terminal report server in the core network of the wireless network. Such reporting requires information of the destination for the terminal performance reports.
A fully qualified domain name (FQDN) is the complete domain name of a specific computer or host on a routed network such as the Internet. A fully qualified domain name, is a domain name that specifies its exact location in the tree hierarchy of the Domain Name System (DNS). It specifies all domain levels, including the top-level domain and the root domain. The fully qualified domain name is distinguished by its uniqueness; it can only be interpreted one way.
A domain name server can look up the IP address of the host using the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) as the key. This is also used to specify complete domain names of specific hosts in the network of the operator, such as a terminal report server in a core node of a wireless network. The nomenclature for compiling domain names is described in 3GPP TS 23.003 V9.4.0 “Numbering, addressing and identification” and 3GPP TS 29.303 V9.2.0 “Domain Name System Procedures” provides details about the DNS operations.
A method for terminal reporting relating to Quality of Experience is suggested in 3GPP TS26.346 V10.0.0 “Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS); Protocols and codecs”, wherein the reporting is made to a Broadcast Multicast Service Center (BM-SC) located in the core network. The reporting is performed from a terminal to a service provider involving communication over an access network node and a core network node. The reporting does not support application layer terminal reporting, due to a lack of knowledge in the terminal relating to proper IP addressing of the terminal reports. Furthermore, feedback is provided to the service provider, i.e., reaching a node in the serving operator network, and may not reach the terminal's operator network.
Another method for performance reporting is based on the presence of spy-ware applications in the terminal, whereby service performance for a specific application may be observed. The observations may be offered to application providers or operators on commercial terms. However, these types of applications are usually limited to specific applications. The introduction of spy-ware in the terminal could also raise questions of terminal user integrity.